


That Bookshop Next To The Record Store

by multifandomstylinson (ViolaWay)



Category: Video Blogging & YouTube RPF
Genre: Humor, M/M, Silly, bookshop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 08:57:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1299070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolaWay/pseuds/multifandomstylinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil loves books, and Dan loves blowing off work to watch him read.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Bookshop Next To The Record Store

In all honesty, Phil is not a good shopkeeper. Customers come and go without him making so much as an attempt to sell them anything—most of the time he's too engrossed in whatever he's reading to bother even glancing at them. He sits behind the counter and hopes that they come to him, which sometimes they do. He earns enough to live on. It's good enough for him.

Then again, Dan is a much worse sales assistant, in the shop nest door. Terrible, in fact. His lunch breaks tend to span around three hours these days. He blames Phil, though. He can barely help going next door to Lester's Books and watching the man read. It's captivating, and he thinks that if he gets fired he won't even mind. Luckily, his friend PJ covers for him, so it doesn't ever become a real problem.

Phil has seen the brown-headed stranger who sits on one of the chairs and watches him—has even thought about talking to him, but...he can't. Or at least, he's convinced himself that he can't. It's safer in the little bubble of privacy that his counter provides, a wooden slab protecting him from the outside world. Protecting him from cute boys in too-tight jeans who never buy a goddamn thing, just sit in a chair with their headphones in and their sandwich spilling crumbs on the carpet...

The point is, Dan can't get this boy out of his head. He's obsessed, just a little bit, and he can't even help it. It's like Phil has some sort of magical hold over him, and he's powerless to resist the urge to sit and stare for hours every day. He hasn't spoken to his crush yet, though, because it's just—he can't. There've been all these months of pining, so it's impossible for Phil to live up to this life that Dan's planned for them to have together (share a flat, stay up until midnight drinking cheap wine, win the lottery, buy a villa in France, move into a penthouse, have lots of sex etc.)

***

"Can I...can I buy this book, please?"

"'s about time you bought something."

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine. This one's good, by the way. Don't rush it."

"Maybe I will. Maybe then I'll have an excuse to come back."

“As if you need one.”

“See you tomorrow, then?”

“Well, since I can’t get rid of you…”

“What’s your name, anyway?”

“Oh. Phil. And you’re…?”

“Dan.”

“Nice meeting you, Dan.”

***

In all honesty, Phil begins to look forward to Dan’s visits more than he does any other part of his day. Dan is sort of intoxicating, really; stumbling over his words but doing so with a cheeky wink right behind, and flirting until Phil’s blushing before retreating back into himself, finding a corner in which to read and watch Phil again. It feels like every time they take a step forward, they take another back, like some sort of dance.

The again, Dan is _trying._ He’s just scared that with every word, Phil will realise how hopelessly infatuated he really is, and he’s trying to avoid that. PJ’s told him at least seventeen times that he’s being an idiot and that if he really has such a pathetic crush, then the least he can do is stop whining about it and actually get it on with the damn guy. PJ is charming, really. He’s also taken on most of Dan’s workload, so Dan thinks he can’t really complain that much.

Phil has considered, a few times, asking Dan out himself. He’s a normal human being with a healthy fear of rejection and he thinks he can take it (has only known Dan for a week, after all) and obviously Dan isn’t going to be making a move any time soon, and it’s not like it’s _friendship_ that’s blooming, not particularly. Not when Dan’s been staring at him for hours every working day, biting his lip and generally looking adorable (it’s nauseating, sort of).

The point is, Dan knows they’re dancing around each other and he knows that they both know they’re interested in one another, and basically he’s completely aware that he’s being an idiot. So he comes up with a plan. It’s not a very good plan, admittedly, but it will have to do. It also involves maybe slightly getting PJ to stalk Phil for him, but that’s what friends are for, right?

***

“No. Absolutely not. That’s wrong. And illegal.”

“It’s not actually _stalking_ , per se…”

‘You just asked me to _follow Phil around for a couple of days_ so you can find out _where he frequents_. Dan, that is _literally_ what stalking is!”

“You use the word ‘literally’ too liberally,” Dan says. PJ punches him in the nose.

Dan actually has a pretty impressive nosebleed, which he decides to incorporate into his ‘Get Phil Lester To Go On A Date With Me’ plan. He goes into Lester’s Books, nosebleed and all, and absolutely charmingly asks for a tissue. Phil looks like he’s going to pass out. Dan wonders if his plan was very well thought through, really.

“Crap, sorry, I just can’t stand the sight of blood, wait there, I’ll get you something, sorry,” Phil rambles. It’s endearing. Dan hates himself.

When Phil returns with a tissue, he thrusts it into Dan’s hand without actually looking at him, still muttering something about ‘Oh my God, how do you have that much blood in your _body_ ’ and Dan has to laugh at him, because Phil is literally the cutest person he has ever come across in his entire life. Literally.

“Are you laughing at me?” Phil asks, wounded.

“Of course not,” Dan giggles. “Alright, only a little bit. You’re cute.” That was not what he meant to say.

“Oh. Well. Thank you.”

“How about a date?” That was also something Dan didn’t mean to say. He decides he needs to work on his brain to mouth filter.

“Okay.”

Which is when Dan realises that, yes, it really is that easy, and also that he just got punched in the face for nothing.


End file.
